[Murphy3]

Hey, I am new here. I have always been someone that has been up and down with my weight but my diet has never been good. I always exercised enough to stay in the 220-230 range.. By the way, I'm a 6'2 male... Well, I got older and could no longer run all that well because of leg/feet injuries and I still ate poorly...so the weight began to creep up. I topped out at 260 pounds. Right now, I'm down to 255, but I'm convinced it's just because I mixed in a couple of salads last week or it's just because of a loss of water weight. Regardless, I feel terrible physically. My blood sugar is normal but on the high side of normal.. same with my cholesterol and my blood pressure. None of them are necessarily a big issue yet, but I feel like they could be quickly. My triglycerides are high (about 230 ish, but that's way down from over 500), but hopefully I'm getting some control over that. But, I'm overweight and I'm worried about heart disease. I have a full body scan scheduled in a couple of months that will hopefully ease some concerns or tell me whether or not I should be extremely worried at the moment.... anyways, I know I'm rambling. I do have some other issues that are concerning that I'm hoping will get better with weight loss. Regardless, I know that carrying this extra weight WILL DEFINITIVELY shorten my life. I have 4 children aged 13 and under and it's time for me to turn it around. I guess I'm posting on here because I need some type of accountability. I don't really have a lot of people that I feel comfortable talking about this with in my life. So, I feel like I'm going at it alone..That's why I'm here. I need help. I need some type of accountability. I don't know if this is the type of place for that, but I do feel like that if I don't turn it around now, that it'll be too late sooner rather than later.

So, a little about me.
I'm a male
6'2
255
I need to lose weight.. I hope y'all don't mind that I post on here from time to time.. I feel like if I say it out loud to someone or at least type it that maybe it'll help me stick to a plan. If I don't, I know that I'll give in and go back to my old eating habits which is to eat any and everything that I want to eat when I want to eat it..fast food... sweets..sodas... whatever and whenever.

Anyways, any support that anyone wants to give..it's greatly appreciated.
Thank you..

[ange82much]

hi Murphy, good to see you're in the mood to make some positive changes. Your goals sound great.
I'm the other end of the process now and lost 30% of my bodyweight last year, and I feel fantastic, so can highly recommend it.
If you want to lose weight you really need to do it through eating less calories. That's it. Not by exercise. Exercise is obviously good for you and will improve your health, but i'd recommend tackling either the diet or both diet and exercise first up, ie don't expect heaps of exercise to make much difference if your diet's wonky.

Maybe think of some day-to-day goals - for example when you go to bed tonight reflect on at least one good choice you made today and congratulate yourself. Rinse and repeat
Once you start making positive choices it becomes a habit that you build on, and hey presto, you feel better and better about yourself (getting started is tough though!).

Have a look around the threads because most of the activity is there - Chicks up for a Challenge are good ones - you can decide on your own targets or behaviours, tell us about them, and check in with your progress and get support from everyone. The short term specific stuff is more manageable and more motivating than a loose long-term goal, so it's good to have both. Good luck!!